D-backs preparing for various playoff travel scenarios

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PHOENIX -- D-backs fans are on edge with their team's postseason hopes resting on not just how Arizona fares over the next two days, but also on what happens with the Mets and Braves on Saturday and Sunday -- and possibly Monday, when New York and Atlanta are set to play a doubleheader.

At stake is not just whether the D-backs make the postseason, but who and where they will play. There are numerous scenarios, and it can be stress-inducing.

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But fans' stress level is nothing compared to that of Roger Riley, the D-backs' director of team travel and the person who is tasked with getting players, coaches, support staff, families and front-office officials (and around 9,000 pounds of equipment) where they need to go.

With all the possible combinations, it's a lot to think about.

"We don't know where we're going, if we're going or when we're going," Riley said. "But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

Riley has handled travel for the D-backs since their inaugural season, and he added equipment and clubhouse operations to his responsibilities in 2001. On his desk Friday were manifests for different flights, hotel contracts and rooming lists covering every scenario.

"I've got hotel rooms locked down in every city you can imagine at this point," Riley said.

That's a lot of rooms, and in some cities there are complicating factors.

"Usually, we use the same hotel we use in that city during the regular season," Riley said. "But things come up. Like in San Diego this time, there are two citywide conventions going on, so we have to stay someplace else. And for the postseason, we're going to have a lot of front office people going, so we'll also have an overflow hotel."

As for the planes, Riley has two on hold with Delta for Sunday night or Monday night: one for players and coaches and the other for front office members and families. The D-backs' clubhouse staff will likely load the equipment onto the planes while they await the results of Monday's games.

The most challenging scenario for the D-backs would be if they don't know their postseason fate until the conclusion of the Mets-Braves makeup doubleheader on Monday.

If it comes down to that, the D-backs will likely gather at Chase Field for a workout in the afternoon, and the clubhouse staff may head to the airport to load the gear onto the airplane.

If the D-backs know after the first game of the doubleheader that they're in the postseason, but it's just a matter of whether they will play the Brewers or the Padres, they will head to the airport sometime before the end of that second game.

"If we get to, like, the seventh, eighth inning, and [we] know that we're going somewhere, then we'll go ahead and start going to the airport and sit on the plane to the final out," Riley said. "And then we'll tell the pilot where we're going."